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Frozen food consumption in the United States took a dip in 2010, according to both the Nielsen Company and Food for Thought, with retail volume down X.X% in tonnage terms and overall volume off X.X%. Dollar volume slipped X.X% at retail and very slightly overall.

Factoring in Canada and Mexico, dollar value for frozen foods other than ice cream advanced X.X% to $XX.XXX billion in North America, Food for Thought reported. Counting ice cream, there was a slight decline from $XX.XXX billion to $XX.X billion. North American tonnage, again excluding ice cream, declined from XX,XXX,XXX to XX,XXX,XXX.

At XX.X kilograms per capita, by Food for Thought's accounting, the US consumption rate is still number one in the world--but only slightly ahead of Denmark, Ireland and Norway (see QFFI, October 2011). Canadian consumption, at X.XXX million tons, was up X.X%, with a per capita rate of XX.X kilograms. Mexican consumption, at XXX,XXX tons, showed a two percent increase, but a per capita rate of only X.X kg.

Excluding ice cream, Food for Thought put US tonnage for 2010 at XX,XXX,XXX, off X.X% from 2009. That converts to nearly XX.X billion pounds. Nielsen tracked retail consumption at a bit over XX.X billion pounds; that would make foodservice-institutional distribution about XX.X billion if the two databases are compatible. Food for Thought also attributes the overall decline in volume to vegetables (off X.X% at X,XXX,XXX tons) and pizza (down X.X% at XXX,XXX tons).

Looking at more recent statistics, the entire US frozen retail category was down X.X% in both units and dollar value for the year ending March XX, 2011, compared with a year earlier, with XX.X billion units earning $XX.X billion in sales, according to Nielsen.

Frozen hors d'oeuvres and snacks suffered a X.X% drop in revenue to $X.X billion, and a X.X% plunge in unit volume to XXX.X million, Nielsen reported.

With formerly hot sales of Hot Pockets handheld sandwiches not so hot lately, Nestle announced that it would lay off XXX workers at its plant in Chatsworth, California. That's about a sixth of the factory's payroll.
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